Stuart Broad admitted England were not good enough after being eliminated from the Twenty20 World Cup. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

England were "not quite good enough," according to their captain, Stuart Broad, after the defending champions were knocked out of the ICC World Twenty20 on Monday.

Despite a maiden Twenty20 international half-century from Samit Patel, England lost by 19 runs to Sri Lanka, so failing to make the semi-finals.

"Ten minutes after the game you're obviously really disappointed," said Broad. "You can look at the missed opportunities. But I think throughout the whole tournament we've not quite been good enough."

England had to get by, of course, without the controversially absent Kevin Pietersen and, although others hinted at potential, several appeared willing and able but not yet ready to take on and beat the world.

"What you get with young guys is some days absolute brilliance and other days a bit of averageness," said Broad of the inexperience in the squad. "I think, as a team, we've probably shown that. It has been a learning experience for us.

"Obviously we didn't have enough players firing at the same time. The talent is certainly there. You see on the domestic scene these are the guys who are performing week in week out. It's a learning experience when you come into the international scene.

"We've got guys here who haven't played a lot of international cricket. But as long as we learn from it, we will develop."

Even so the competitive Broad was feeling deflated after the defeat. "It's very disappointing to have gone out because I believe we do have the firepower in that changing room to go far," he added.

"Coming to the ground today, knowing you win three games and you win a World Cup, you're not that far away. It's frustratingly close."